Take That

At least we had the gift of time.

Not enough time perhaps,

but more than we thought

we would get.

It wasn’t necessarily the kind

of gift we wanted either,

because the end result

didn’t change. The cancer

wasn’t leaving. In fact,

it came back three times,

damn it!

The only way to beat it

was for you to die

and then to consign

your body to the flames.

I wasn’t sure how I felt

about cremation.

It seemed too final,

      too alien.

But then I thought…

make the cancer burn.

That brought me

a grim measure

of satisfaction

      and release.